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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Secondary education

Early maths Gcse

31 replies

Phoenix4725 · 27/02/2010 16:13

Ds is academic and he is starting new school next week after move and they talked about him doing his maths in Y9 anyone any experiance of this ,his last working towards was 7.6 end Y7

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inthesticks · 07/03/2010 15:42

He's in year nine just now so I haven't ruled out tutoring in year 10/11.
Have printed out a past paper from the maths challenge. It looks exactly the sort of thing he would enjoy.
He's currently groaning on the sofa with man flu a nasty cold so I'll wait a day or two before showing it to him.

Thanks to everyone who have given constructive advice here. Sorry OP for the thread hijack.

harecare · 07/03/2010 14:08

I did mine a year early and it meant the following year we could start on the A level modules. It was well worth it as we all did very badly in the A level modules so needed the extra year. The whole class who did early maths got As or Bs. I of course got an A!!!

wolfbrother · 07/03/2010 14:04

(obviously there should have been a comma after "trying very hard" in my last post. )

Would you be able to find someone outside school to coach him occasionally in year 11? I mean, to introduce him to some higher maths concepts to keep him interested, while he has to do the deadly stats GCSE.

inthesticks · 07/03/2010 13:41

I haven't asked about the maths challenge yet as I've only just heard of it via this thread,but I've just seen it gets a mention on on the school website, for year 10s.

Being cynical I feel that helping my DS is not going to increase their 5 A to Cs targets as he's going to get an A* without them putting any effort in. The headteacher seemed very keen to help when we approached him, but the Head of maths who is also his teacher was less enthusiastic. I suspect he was miffed because we had gone to the head after two years of very politely asking the Maths teachers to help.
It's a good rural comp which I'm very happy with apart from this one issue.

wolfbrother · 07/03/2010 12:34

inthesticks, have you asked DS whether the school already does the Maths Challenges?

I am a bit if not. I thought most schools did these, but clearly may be wrong. (My DCs are at ordinary comprehensives by the way.) If not, it doesn't sound as if the maths department is trying very hard to be honest. Am I being unfair? Perhaps a maths teacher will correct me.

inthesticks · 07/03/2010 09:32

Thanks for this I'm going to look at these. I'll get the past papers for him to try and if it goes well I may try and get the school on board.

I've now found out that DS thinks that DH and I, along with his teachers are conspiring to hold him back. He's convinced he could do his AS and Alevel if we gave him the chance. However bright he is though, he needs the building blocks i.e.he needs teaching.
DH can help with GCSE level stuff but did maths A level 40 years ago so would struggle with that.

snorkie · 06/03/2010 23:29

If he finds intermediate level fairly easy, then try the Olympiads - they are much harder needing written answers rather than multi-choice & develop concept of proof. Also, whilst yr 9s usually do intermediate level maths challenges, some very able ones do senior level as well - Usually aimed at sixth formers, but there's no bar on younger students doing them (& the actual maths you need to know isn't out of reach for younger people). The maths challenges/olympiads only test rather specific mathematical fields - mostly geometry, number theory and combinatorics. If you do well enough there are some summer schools to go on as well that are very challenging.

bloss · 06/03/2010 22:15

Message withdrawn

hocuspontas · 06/03/2010 16:44

Ooh Phoenix - what school did ds get into? Was it H? They've always tried to get students to do early Maths. It used to look good in the local rag.

(Not stalking you honest!)

inthesticks · 06/03/2010 16:31

bloss what are the Maths Challenge papers?

bloss · 06/03/2010 14:37

Message withdrawn

calamari · 06/03/2010 11:06

If he feels confident - let him. He'll be so proud. My child did a very early GCSE and came out A*. It will certainly give them and advantage in years to come. Aim for the early AS and A" a well, if he wants to go for it. No point in holding them back. Plus, if he gets one GCSE out of the way, all the more time to concentrate on getting good results for other subjects later on. Good luck !!

BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny · 05/03/2010 19:06

Ds's school were talking about him doing his maths GCSE next year (he's currently year 6). I'm against it, where will he go from here?? They should be adapting the work to stretch him sideways IYSWIM. I expect I'll have to see how it goes aswell

inthesticks · 05/03/2010 19:02

Oh this is so depressing. DS is really gifted at Maths and I've complained repeatedly that he is not challenged at school. DH and I recently approached the school to see whether any more could be done as he was so bored he was ready to drop the idea of Maths after GCSE.
We even suggested we would arrange for a tutor to do something with him.
His Maths teacher said he thought he would find the next part of the GCSE much more challenging , and we should not distract him with anything else now,and so far he is quite engaged with it. They said they would look at him doing some additional work in year 10. The sixth form were no help according to the maths teacher.
He loves doing tests and has been doing lots of GCSE practice papers.
There is no way his school will change the planned statistics for something else. I hope it won't put him off.

snorkie · 04/03/2010 13:42

Depends what they are planning to do with him maths-wise in years 10 & 11 I'd say. Is there a path in the sixthform for mathematicians who have fast-tracked earlier stuff? All too often there isn't & then these good mathematicians get put off taking the subject further.

wolfbrother · 04/03/2010 12:04

We spoke to the maths dept of the local 6th form college about the wisdom of the school doing GCSE in year 9 and FSMQ in year 10, and their advice was "Fine as long as the child is going to get top grades"(and I have to say that most of the group did NOT get the top grade in the FSMQ) "but in year 11 make sure the teacher does more pure maths with them, and not statistics GCSE, or they will have forgotten a lot of it when they come to do the A level."

inthesticks, is it worth talking to your school about doing FSMQ rather than stats? I suspect a lot of school do the stats GCSE as it's easy, but I've been told, as mnistooaddictive says, that it doesn't move the maths on at all.

mnistooaddictive · 03/03/2010 22:03

GCSE stats is a lot of work and the most able children find it boring as it is more stuff but not challenging. The coursework is a complete nightmare.
Sorry to be so negative

inthesticks · 03/03/2010 17:29

My DS in year 9 has just sat part 1 of his Maths GCSE. The rest is taken in Y10 and in Year 11 the top set do GCSE statistics.

mnistooaddictive · 02/03/2010 09:18

bloss - to put the other side, you can do FSMQ alongside GCSE, taking each topic a bit further. You can then do both qualifications in year 11. The extra sytudy means GCSE seems much easier and helps them to be sure of getting A*. ervous students are also comforted by the fact that they are not doing it 'early'

Phoenix4725 · 01/03/2010 18:56

thats what ds is hoping as he is taking triple science to might free up some time to concertrate on that

OP posts:

Flightattendant · 01/03/2010 13:46

Yes we had a special set for early maths gcse, this was, goodness, almost 20 years ago so may be irrelevant. but I am sure we all passed, it was very formulaic. As evidenced by the fact I have forgotten ALL of it now I got a B, started further maths and gave up within a week - big big jump!
but it enabled me to do an extra subject which was nice, as maths was done with.

ShrinkingViolet · 01/03/2010 13:17

DD1 did GCSE Maths in Y10, then FMQ in Y11, which provided a good base for A level in Y12 (she'll go on to do FM in Y13) - we were happy becasue it stretched her, without moving too far ahead of her peer group (advice re university entrance was that the top places like to see that you've sat the bulk of your GCSEs at the same time, so can cope with the pressure, rather than spreading them out over several years in order to get the A*s ifswim).

FWIW, the FMQ was regarded as the hardest Maths exam an ex-pupil, now studying Pure Maths at Imperial, reckoned he'd ever sat, and was definately challenging.

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bloss · 01/03/2010 07:08

Message withdrawn

Phoenix4725 · 01/03/2010 06:02

thank you

am going speak to head of maths have had talk with ds and he wants to do it as has found maths in class pretty dull .So going let him try and told him if he does not get what he wants its not iportant can resit

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wolfbrother · 28/02/2010 17:59

This was offered to my child. I personally didn't want him doing it two years early, as I wanted him to do more interesting maths (eg Maths olympiad stuff)to extend him laterally instead of accelerating him.
However, I didn't win that one with the school, so he did the GCSE in year 9 and the FSMQ (Additional maths) in year 10 and got top grades, so it did work out OK.

Still think I was right though.

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